Today and tomorrow I’d like to share a couple reflections from Amy Carmichael (Edges of His Ways).  (Can you tell that I love her writings?)  They both have to do with this passage: “Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of hte enemy; and nothing shall hurt you” (Luke 10:19)

     Our Lord Jesus said this to the seventy: and yet we know that all downthe ages His servants have been hurt in a thousand ways.  So the words must mean, and we know they do mean, something that goes far deeper than bodily hurt, deeper even than disappointment–that hardest hurt the mind can be asked to bear.
     It must mean that our spirits shall tread on serpents and scorpions, and have power over all the enemy.  Nothing shall be able to sting our spirit, poison it, or paralyse it.  It is one of the magnificent promises of the Bible.  We cannot take it too literally.  There is no need to be overcome, whatever happens. “O my soul, thou hast trodden down strength” (Judges 5.21).